Ohrenbrücker Tor is the southwestern gate in the city wall of Ingelheim am Rhein

Ingelheim am Rhein

Ingelheim am Rhein is a town in the Mainz-Bingen district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany on the Rhine’s west bank. The town calls itself the Rotweinstadt and since 1996 it has been Mainz-Bingen’s district seat....

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Etymology

Ohrenbrücke is generally accepted to derive from the Obere Brücke (Upper bridge). During the Middle Ages

Middle Ages

The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...

 only two bridges across the Selz

Selz

The Selz is a river in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, a left tributary to the Rhine. It flows through the biggest German wine region, which is called Rheinhessen....

 existed. The “Lower Bridge” at the ancient Altengässer Tor and the “Upper Bridge” at the Ohrenbrücker Tor.

Architecture

The gate comprises two towers and a gothic

Gothic art

Gothic art was a Medieval art movement that developed in France out of Romanesque art in the mid-12th century, led by the concurrent development of Gothic architecture. It spread to all of Western Europe, but took over art more completely north of the Alps, never quite effacing more classical...

 arch

Arch

An arch is a structure that spans a space and supports a load. Arches appeared as early as the 2nd millennium BC in Mesopotamian brick architecture and their systematic use started with the Ancient Romans who were the first to apply the technique to a wide range of structures.-Technical aspects:The...

. The northern tower had been reconstructed together with the arch in the middle of the 20th century. It is assumed that at the top of the two of the towers, a slender upright spires at the top of their buttress existed. The gate was equipped with a machicolation

Machicolation

A machicolation is a floor opening between the supporting corbels of a battlement, through which stones, or other objects, could be dropped on attackers at the base of a defensive wall. The design was developed in the Middle Ages when the Norman crusaders returned. A machicolated battlement...

 above the arch. Both towers are decorated with Lombard band

Lombard band

A Lombard band is a decorative blind arcade, usually exterior, often used during the Romanesque and Gothic periods of architecture.Lombard bands are believed to have been first used during the First Romanesque Period of the early 11th Century. At that time, they were the most common architectural...

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History

The first reference to the gate dates back to the 13th century. It had been erected as a infrastructure provision for the Westerberg. Naturally the terrain outside the gate was a marshy ground fed by the Selz. It was difficult to come inside or outside the town by carts. Simply a small bridge for pedestriens existed.

Literature

• Karl Heinz Henn: Die Ortsbefestigung von Ober-Ingelheim. in: Beiträge zur Ingelheimer Geschichte, Heft 36, 1987

External links